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<title>On the Breeding of Gaia’s Progeny by TeaJay (LoreWren)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28758207">On the Breeding of Gaia’s Progeny</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoreWren/pseuds/TeaJay'>TeaJay (LoreWren)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Exalted (Roleplaying Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cults, Fall of the First Age (Exalted), Gen, Hero Cults, Implied/Referenced Abortion, Implied/Referenced Eugenics, Implied/Referenced Torture, Present Tense, Religious Cults, Sidereal Exalted, Solar Exalted, Terrestrial Exalted, The First Age (Exalted), The Usurpation (Exalted)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:35:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>365</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28758207</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoreWren/pseuds/TeaJay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The treatise is precise, accurate, and well-received. It describes how long a Terrestrial must wait between conceptions to maximize number of Exalts birthed in their lifetime. It also describes, in an oft-elided or outright removed chapter, how this information was found.</p><p>Serpent of the Golden Tongue is eternally exacting, and wanted to ensure these experiments were both thoroughly recorded and repeatable.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>On the Breeding of Gaia’s Progeny</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fic uses a created High Realm pronoun set. (Originally created by forbidden_librarian.) These pronouns are yi/yi/yir and are used in reference to divine beings, most frequently gods.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The treatise is precise, accurate, and well-received. It describes how long a Terrestrial must wait between conceptions to maximize number of Exalts birthed in their lifetime. It also describes, in an oft-elided or outright removed chapter, how this information was found.</p><p>Serpent of the Golden Tongue is eternally exacting, and wanted to ensure these experiments were both thoroughly recorded and repeatable. </p>
<hr/><p>Years later, a Terrestrial Exalt asks how he was born. After the conversation, he goes out deep into the forest, hands and feet biting into trees that stutter and stutter and fall.</p><p>A woman emerges into—a clearing, now, he supposes. She shines in colors of essence that belong in the night, and he knows her for a Chosen of Journeys.</p><p>He stops. Everything hurts, but in the manner of having worked a long day. No wounds, not when he’s been working solely on his own element.</p><p>“Gaia’s Chosen,” she says with a nod. Not deference, but—close. Closer than he’d expect from any Star-touched, any Celestial.</p><p>“Mercury’s.” The returned nod is jerky. He can’t make himself bow.</p><p>She breathes. Just that. He finds himself breathing with her, the process as meditative as the last few hours have been. “I know.”</p><p>His breath stutters. If she were Jupiter’s, it wouldn’t hurt but—it’s never been a secret, has it? He only ever had to ask.</p><p>She extends a hand. Smaller than his, defter, and visibly calloused. A fighter. A martial artist. “We mean to fight them.”</p><p>It takes him a moment to understand, but only that. The Serpent of the Golden Tongue is whatever yi cares to be, but his parents always said yi, just as they always said the name in the same tone they said, “Mandate of Heaven.” He’s not sure he’s ever heard anyone refer to—to—that creature in a plural pronoun. Sentences naturally reform. ‘Serpent of the Golden Tongue and them.’ ‘Serpent of the Golden Tongue and me.’ ‘Yi and she.’</p><p>But. ‘Them.’ The Solars. The rulers of creation. The ones who let...</p><p>His mother’s explanation of the gore had been vivid enough; he feels no need to reconsider it.</p><p>He takes her hand. He says, only: “How soon?”</p>
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